Hybrids?

[Kyberwulf]

I have been wondering something. Creatures like Centaurs, Which half of the body contains the heart. Or do they have duplicates of body parts? Like two stomachs, two Hearts, 4 kidneys and such. Does that mean they can effectively take a shot thought the heart, and still walk around relatively unaided?

[HuskyBoi]

Interesting question. I'm afraid I've little practical advice to offer, other than a rather charming quote from CS Lewis.

"A centaur has two stomachs, a man-stomach and a horse-stomach. This is why inviting a centaur round for the weekend is such a serious matter, for his man-stomach must be filled with meat and sandwiches and fruit, and his horse-stomach with oats and carrots".

Words to that effect, anyway.

Practically, most mammals, regardless of size, have only one heart and one pair of lungs. Other internal organs like stomachs actually can be multiples, so I'd assume centaurs follow this trend. That said, this is a fantasy world, so any biology you can to mention can be correct. They are after all, magical beasts.

[Mastikator]

Whatever the DM/Storywriter decides. Their organs aren't described AFAIK in "canon" folklore.

[Eldan]

Hm. I wonder if Aristotle or anyone like him ever wrote on a subject like that. He wrote a lot of Naturalist texts, outdated and strange they may look though, today.

[GnomeFighter]

Interesting question...

A centaur probably only needs the one stomach, as meat and "human" food has allot more nutritional value than grass and other things horses eat. This should not be a problem. Lungs and heart are, however, a problem. A horse needs massive lungs and heart just to keep its body working. I THINK centaurs are smaller than most horses, but still I can't see human organs even coming close to being able to support a horses oxygen requirements.

However, I can't see how two sets of lungs would work or the need for two hearts with one set of lungs.

Seems like a very poor design to me :)

[Scow2]

Two hearts allows for redundancy and more efficient distribution. I'm not going to say where I found a similar species that explains the solution to the issue. The problem is synchonizing the hearts so they don't interfere with each other.

[Zahhak]

Two hearts allows for redundancy and more efficient distribution. I'm not going to say where I found a similar species that explains the solution to the issue. The problem is synchonizing the hearts so they don't interfere with each other.

Timelords.

Also, questions like this are why I generally completely ignore the presence of such hybrids. What I usually say is that all of the humanoid races are basically subspecies of humans: elves split off in heavily wooded areas, dwarves in mountainous and northern areas, gnomes on islands (the kind that would encourage mechanics as a way to travel place to place), and hobbits are from hell because no one likes them. And the various monsterous/savage humanoids are twisted versions of the main line that was warped by being too close to very dark gods when they came to kill the gods. Humans became hobgoblins, elves became drow, dwarves became orcs (because I wanted to keep orcs), gnomes became kobolds, and hobbits became goblins. And any other humanoid is either something from the pit of hell, or the result of a bored and twisted wizard.

[KillianHawkeye]

We are still attempting to locate and capture a real centaur for dissection. Once we are successful, we will post the results of our studies.

[Mabn]

I picture a centaur's physiology as being a mix of giraph and whatever that ancestor of snakes was in this regard. On real heart, but a circulatory system with a miniature heart somewhere in the human torso, two lungs, offset from one another as to be essentially sequential.

[Slipperychicken]

I have been wondering something. Creatures like Centaurs, Which half of the body contains the heart. Or do they have duplicates of body parts? Like two stomachs, two Hearts, 4 kidneys and such. Does that mean they can effectively take a shot thought the heart, and still walk around relatively unaided?

If it's a mix of man and horse (), then it should have repeated organs. If not, why would only the horse-bit have hair? The whole body would be hairy if it had evolved naturaly.

Better question is how the lungs and digestive system are handled. Does the centaur have double sets of lungs and livers? Two stomachs? It would definitely need it to deal with the increased mass. Would it need to breathe more through its much-smaller mouth/nose to accomodate the whole body's oxygen needs?

The "connecting" area would be a huge weakpoint, since both man and horse are squishy there. Would the ribs continue up through there to connect? Would it need two solar plexuses to protect both hearts?

The centaur would have big trouble with itches on its back or underside. How would it reach that? Special centaur backscratchers? Would it even be possible for it to wipe after a poo?

How would it pick things up off the ground? Can they bend the human bit over?

The spine would be L-shaped. Would that make the back-kink especially vulnerable to bludeoning to break the spine?

Could it ever decide to walk on its hands and forelegs? Like if the back legs were crippled, severed, or destroyed?

[JusticeZero]

Alternately, reject standard physics. A universe with hit points and where good and evil are atomic properties should probably not be bound by concerns of blood volume and such like.

[Zahhak]

I feel like my signature is relevant.

[yougi]

Well, a quick google research gave me this:

Spoiler

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and this

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As they were found on the internet, these sources are therefore 100% accurate and to be believed and trusted. I mean, the first one clearly comes from a noted physician, probably teaming up with a cryptozoologist.
Diafram...

[Jay R]

Seems like a very poor design to me :)

Well, yes, of course.

Centaurs were neither designed by genetic biologists, nor developed along an evolutionary path. They were described by story-tellers with no education.

[Slipperychicken]

Centaurs were neither designed by genetic biologists, nor developed along an evolutionary path. They were described by story-tellers with no education.

They might have had education, just not education relevant to Centaur biology.

[LibraryOgre]

They might have had education, just not education relevant to Centaur biology.

On the other hand, Poul Anderson wrote Fire Time, a reasonably hard Sci-Fi novel with a race of leonid centauroids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtarians

[Scow2]

On the other hand, Poul Anderson wrote Fire Time, a reasonably hard Sci-Fi novel with a race of leonid centauroids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtarians

While I was thinking of a different feline-hexapod species entirely, that goes into (way too much) detail about the internal anatomy. The ones in question, depending on generation, either have all the 'vital' organs (lungs, digestive tract, and heart) in the lower body, leaving the torso to have a lot more muscle, and the 'second' generation have redundant and synched cardiorespiratory systems, while keeping the much more muscular, digestion-free abdomen.

The centaur would have big trouble with itches on its back or underside. How would it reach that? Special centaur backscratchers? Would it even be possible for it to wipe after a poo?

Not any more of a problem for a centaur than it is for any normal horse.

[Avilan the Grey]

Hmmm... I would actually mix and match it.

Centaur, Avilan style made up right now on the spot:

Virtually all organs are in the horse part (lungs, digestive system etc), but it has two hearts. This is only important for magical reasons, though, you can kill it by normal means, but it's soul is in the human heart. So for alchemy ingretients, or if you want to soul trap a centaur you need the human heart.

It's stommach is in the horse body but it is an enlarged human stommach, after all Centaurs are hunter-gatherers with the same teeth humans have but the appetite of a horse.

[Jay R]

The first decision to make is whether it matters to your story.

The second decision is whether the insides of a magical hybrid are run by chemical and biological laws or magical ones.

The third one is whether the chemical and biological laws of this universe are similar to those of our universe

Unless your answers to all three of these questions are the opposite of mine, there are no more questions to ask.